Over the past decade, computers have evolved to have more intimate relationships with people. People have become physically and cognitively augmented through portable and wearable devices that put digital computation and information at our fingertips. With recent advancements in synthetic biology and biotechnology, we can now program living cells to act as a “biological computer” and sense, compute, and respond. Researchers have also integrated biological and digital systems to create hybrid devices that tap into our biological information and offer real-time digital readouts. It is likely that in the future, we will wear or ingest bio-digital technology to monitor and enhance our health and lifestyle.
The Wearable Biotech workshop aims to explore the vision of bio-digital interfaces in, on, and around the body, and push the conversation forward by stimulating a dialogue between technologists, biologists, engineers, artists, designers, startups and industry. The workshop will start with short updates and presentations followed by brainstorms aimed at articulating challenges, a path forward and a series of motivating future use cases.
Wyss Postdoctoral Fellow Luis Soenksen and Wyss Research Scientist Peter Nguyen will both be speaking.